Management Tip of the Day: Using good meeting "hygiene"

<p>An unemployed man checks his Blackberry during a "job club" at the Prince of Peace Catholic Church in Olathe, Kansas February 25, 2009.Dave Kaup</p>

BOSTON (Reuters) - Holding meetings is an unavoidable part of project management, but there are ways you can limit the dread that often surrounds them, says Harvard Business Review.

The Management Tip of the Day offers quick, practical management tips and ideas from Harvard Business Review and HBR.org (www.hbr.org). Any opinions expressed are not endorsed by Reuters.

"Meetings, meetings, and more meetings! Don't contribute to the dread. Next time you need to gather people together to advance your project, make sure you do the following to make your meeting worthwhile:

1. Make sure it's necessary. Before sending out the invite, ask yourself whether there's another way to move the project forward. Can you get input via e-mail? Can you gather a sub-group to solve the current issue?

2. Be clear about the objective. State the purpose of the meeting in the invite and again at the beginning of the meeting. Be sure to explain how the meeting will advance the overall project goals.

3. Focus. Just because you have an hour scheduled, don't take it. Keep the discussion centered and avoid unnecessary side conversations."

-Today's management tip was adapted from "Guide to Project Management," a collection of essays.